Phantom Hollow little lion man

Left to his own devices, Cosmo had a moment to explore the group's newfound territory, to see how far it stretched, and really become familiar with the land. But one distracting butterfly led to another distracting bird led to a long line of distractions that practically beckoned him to follow, until he realized that he'd been led much further from home than he'd intended. It didn't worry him too much, though! He'd been exercising his tracking skills after a while of not putting his nose to its limits, so he was confident in his ability to sniff out Katmai's scent markers and get back home.

Wherever he was, it was much quieter than he was used to. His footsteps seemed to echo through the hollow, and the air was chiller here – but with his thick coat, that was more of a comfort than a deterrent. Eventually, he found a river, and he decided to follow it, maybe just for a little while. He'd learned that you could find all kinds of interesting prey around – or in – the water, and if he got lucky, maybe he'd be able to bring something back –

“Ah!” Cosmo yelped, almost walking headfirst into a wall of speckled fur. He jumped back, stumbling on the forest floor, fur puffing out in surprise (which looked no different from normal, really), before he relaxed and stood back up, laughing at himself.

“Sorry, friend! Didn't see ya there!” Right, wolves liked space. Cosmo took a few steps back, shaking some stray leaves and twigs out of his fur. “Thought I was alone out here! Do you live here? It's nice.”